Community Service

The
University of Charleston encourages students to perform community service hours
and complete service projects during each academic year they are in
attendance. Community service
opportunities and placements are coordinated by the Office of Student Life. The Office of Student Life is responsible for
tracking and reporting community service hours performed by individuals and
organizations. All University of
Charleston students are encouraged to complete their service projects and hours
in the Charleston area and other communities.

How
do students benefit from community service?
Students will:

Obtain skills that are transferable to the
classroom, future work experiences, and their work with student organizations.

Learn more about the community and each by
connecting with a network of people.

Planning, coordinating, and assisting with the
administration of campus-wide co-curricular service learning experiences.

Students
and student organizations that are interested in completing service hours may
use the Coordinator of Student Programs as a resource to find projects and
organizations in which to serve.

What
Counts as Community Service?

Many
students have questions about what counts as community service. If any
hours are questionable, please contact the Coordinator of Student Programs for
clarification. Please follow these guidelines in regards to community
service hours. The following are examples of what can count as community
service:

Any project or service that a student completes
benefitting the community (i.e. working with children, elderly, picking up
trash in the community) is considered service.

Service learning hours may count as community
service (i.e. working at the Brookside Home on Financial Skills, or students
setting up free informational clinics).

Donations of food or goods may count as
community service. When documenting the hours, students should focus on
the time spent to gather the goods and transporting them to the service site,
not on the quantity of goods collected.
If students are asked to bring in goods over a lengthy period of time
(i.e. 2 weeks), then the community service hours will be given at 1 hour per 10
items for the students collecting the goods.

Community service hours can be completed on
campus in addition to a student’s hometown, in Charleston area, or even out of
the country.

The
following are examples of what is NOT
counted as community service:

Any event that is used to promote student
organizations for the purpose of gaining new members (i.e. EUC
Days, Involvement Fair).

Projects in which the organization receives
monetary compensation for services and keeps the money for the organization.

Projects that are or promote ideas against
federal, state or local laws.

Projects done in a student’s own home (i.e. Babysitting,
Cleaning out closets etc.)

Documentation
of Service Hours

All
University of Charleston community service hours are to be documented in the Office
of Student Life. Students have the right to obtain service hours or
copies of service project forms at any time. Student organizations
completing University of Charleston service hours must abide by the following
guidelines:

Any service project that is to be open to the
entire UC campus MUST be approved in the Office of Student Life. Students
are to fill out the Event Request Form at least two weeks before the
project begins. Any project that does not have an Event Request Form may
be canceled. If a community service project is limited to the
organization, an Event Request Form is not needed.

All students and student organization members MUST fill out the Community Service Form when
projects or hours are completed in order for hours to be counted.

No SOFA forms will be signed
unless the hours have been documented by the Coordinator of Student
Programs. Students and student organizations may not use
undocumented hours when applying for end of the year awards.-

Students may claim up to three organizations in
their submission in which to apply their community service hours.

Policies for Community Service

Student
organizations representing the University of Charleston must abide by the
following guidelines:

Students must dress appropriately for the
project they are completing. No obscene language, drug, alcohol,
pornography or violence should be on the clothing students wear.

Students should limit the time spent talking on cell
phones or listening to electronic devices unless permitted by the organization
in which the student is serving.

Students should use appropriate language when
serving an organization. Many of the facilities in which students will be
visiting house children and the elderly.

Students should be respectful to the supervisor
of the organization in which they are serving.

Students should not complete any task in which
they feel uncomfortable.